The priority for the month of February was pushing the
Republican Party of Texas' legislative priorities. To accomplish this I
invited leaders of numerous conservative groups to the RPT headquarters to
discuss legislation of mutual interest as well as to afford me the
opportunity to hear their concerns as well as their analysis of the
current legislative session. I met with representatives of Right to Life
groups, 2nd Amendment groups, taxpayer protection groups, Eagle Forum and
conservative legal groups. In addition to meeting with the
leadership of conservative groups, both myself and SREC leadership held
numerous meetings with our Republican legislators to obtain updates on
current legislation and to coordinate strategy on moving key pieces of
legislation forward. I had the chance to visit with Representatives such
as Harvey Hilderbran, Warren Chisum, Wayne Christian, Todd Hunter,
Tryon Lewis and Four Price among others. Rep.
Todd Hunter has been particularly helpful in meeting with SREC leadership
and providing us updates on key pieces of legislation moving forward which
he is in unique position to have knowledge of since he is Chairman of the
Calendars committee. He is also keeping us apprised of
redistricting.

As a result of the efforts of our
Republican State Senators, legislators, Lt. Gov. Dewhurst, Speaker Straus,
SREC members and with the support of our grassroots Republican activists,
we were able to achieve several significant legislative victories during
the month of February. Voter ID passed the Senate and has
passed through a select committee on Voter Identification & Voter
Fraud in the Texas House. The Sonogram Bill also advanced
during the month of February, passing out of the Senate and out of the
State Affairs committee on the House side. The month of February also saw
the filing by Republican legislators of key legislation regarding
sanctuary cities.

On the fundraising front, the RPT hosted a fundraising
reception featuring Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, a Lake
Jackson, TX native. The event grossed approximately $13,000 (for more
information on this event, please see our previous report). At the end of February we received
word from Governor Perry, Lt. Gov. Dewhurst and Speaker Straus that they
would host an RPT dinner in March so during the latter part of February we
worked hard to ensure that this event would be a success (a full
report will be forthcoming).

The RPT, as has been its practice since
the end of November, paid all of its account payables and debt to zero by
the end of the month and never dipped below $600,000 in liquid assets
during the month of February. Thus the party ended the month as it began -
on solid financial footing.

I also continued my tour around the state
to interact with local leadership, push membership in our Grassroots Club and to update the grassroots on
party activities. During the week of February 6th I traveled to Beaumont
and spoke to approximately 150 members of the Golden Triangle
Republican Club in Beaumont, TX, attended a luncheon sponsored by
the Conservative Republicans of Texas, attended a meeting
of the center-right coalition, spoke to the Republican Business
Women of Bexar County and then finished out the week keynoting
the El Paso Lincoln-Reagan dinner. I also met with the chairman of the
Texas Conservative Coalition, Wayne
Christian to discuss legislation and other matters of importance
to the party.

The following week of February 13th, I
spoke to the Nueces County Republican Women's club,
attended the Galveston County Lincoln Reagan Dinner and
then traveled to Dallas to speak at the Young Conservatives of
Texas annual convention as well as host the fundraiser event with
Senator Rand Paul. At the YCT convention, I was the featured speaker at
the Saturday breakfast meeting. Also that evening, I was given the
chance of introducing Senator Paul at dinner. I really enjoyed attending
the Young Conservatives of Texas convention since I was its founding
chairman 31 years ago. But more importantly it gave me an
opportunity to observe our new generation of Conservative leadership. The
conference was well attended and the young people were enthusiastic and
committed.

The following week, I spoke to the
New Braunfels Republican Club, presented Governor
Dewhurst his Chairman's Circle Award at the Williamson
County Reagan Dinner, attended the Travis County
Reagan Day Picnic as well as the Denton County
Lincoln-Reagan Day Dinner. I also had an opportunity that week to visit
with the leadership of the Latino National Republican
Committee. The leadership was hosted by SREC member James
Barnes. I had a chance to visit with them for about an hour and
came away encouraged about their success and our ability to outreach into
the Hispanic community. Comptroller Susan Combs also came
by that week to check up on the party and to offer her usual sound advice
and suggestions. Comptroller Combs has not only been very financially
generous to the party but has also been very helpful to the party by
providing her expertise on budgeting, financial matters and
administration.

The month of February was also a sad
month for us as both Jenny Sykes, our longtime
Organizational Director, and Justin Hollis, our Outreach
Director, were offered significant positions with Commissioner
Michael Williams and Governor David
Dewhurst, respectively. We had previously lost Lauren
Simcik to Representative Geanie Morrison's
office so their departures presented a challenge to us. All three did a
fabulous job for the party. Although I am sad to lose them, I am happy for
them as all three were provided opportunities for advancement. Jenny Sykes
was the longest continuous serving staff member for the party having
worked here six years, and was universally beloved. Justin started our
outreach program and had done an excellent job for us. I had received
positive feedback from virtually everybody he worked with about the fine
job that he had been doing. Lauren had made my life easier by volunteering
to help with my scheduling while at the same time accomplishing her other
tasks in the finance department. I would like to thank them all on my
behalf and on behalf of the RPT for being wonderful employees.

On other matters of upcoming importance -
we continue to evaluate the feasibility of a Presidential Straw
Poll. We were beginning to finalize plans when we were informed
that the types of contributions and sponsorships we could accept because
of FEC regulations would limit us far more than we first thought.
Therefore we are evaluating restructuring the straw poll into a different
format than first planned, but we are still moving forward on the
presumption that we will still hold one on the third week of September
(most likely in Travis County.) After a great deal of thought we
have also determined that it is not feasible to move up the Presidential
Primary date because of new federal restrictions pertaining to mail-in
ballots. Therefore, we plan to move forward with our idea to move the
primary to the first week of April so that we can apportion delegates as
the RPT sees fit, rather than the RNC. RNC prohibits non-proportional
delegate apportionment prior to April 1st.

I am also happy to report that our
Grassroots Club has been growing and we are now
at approximately 400 members which is up from approximately 200 members in
early December and we continue to add every week. We put a request into
the RNC which they are considering, to not call or mail our Grassroots
Club members (presently if you join the Grassroots Club, the RPT takes you
off its call and mail lists.)

Although we face some staff challenges
and fundraising is always a constant concern, I believe the party overall
is on an upswing as we have been able to continue the fundraising momentum
which in turn has allowed us to add three new staff members - Beth
Cubriel, Keri Mason and Yvonne Palmer. We are
moving forward with plans to expand the political department, the
fundraising department and field organization. I am optimistic that we can
accomplish strengthening the party structure while at the same time
accomplishing our priority legislative goals. I would like to thank all
Republicans for their phone calls, cards and letters in support of our
priority legislation. I am very optimistic that we will have a most
successful year!